Getting trashed Do Middlebury students party too hard?

Author: Thomas Brant and Joeseph Bergan

College has been represented in films, television shows and a certain Tom Wolfe book as a place of ridiculous revelry where you will not be held accountable for your actions. Our society tells us that drinking is fine as long as you do it before you enter the "real world" of responsibility. So we come to college believing that drinking is a part of campus life and that everyone does it. In fact, if we learn anything from college movies like "Old School," we have to drink or risk becoming the dreaded "loser." Is Middlebury different from most big party schools or does the drink-'til-you-drop culture persist even in our small Vermont hamlet? The Middlebury Campus surveyed more than 125 students over the weekend to get a better grasp of how students use drugs and alcohol while at college.

Drinking at Middlebury is a two- sided coin. A stereotype exists that most first-years and sophomores spend their weekends playing "quarters" until they cannot feel their faces and keep a look out for Public Safety. The same stereotype says that seniors spend their days at off-campus parties or hemorrhaging money at a bar in town. Are these stereotypes true? Does Middlebury have a drinking and drug problem?

"Nobody knows if drinking is a problem or not at Middlebury because there has never been a comprehensive scientific survey," said Jyoti Daniere, the director of Health and Wellness Education at the College. Although the exact scope of the College's drinking problem is not known, Daniere still tackles the problem with a nationwide focus and operating under the same norms.

"My job is really about harm reduction," said Daniere. "If students are going to drink, they need to drink safely."

One of the key aspects of drinking safely may surprise you. "You never let someone who is really drunk 'sleep it off,'" Daniere said. "If someone drinks too much alcohol and passes out, the alcohol level may be still rising to the point where your brain will shut down and you can die - and they may have been too incapacitated to tell you."

Daniere explained that finding help is a simple trip to the Health Center.

"If your friend is vomiting or not responding, you need to bring them to the Health Center," said Daniere. "I'm pretty sure the official policy is that you will not be in trouble if you come into our care."

While Daniere's job is to help the overall health of Middlebury students, her goals remain realistic - she is not looking to eradicate drinking in any way.

"I like to increase the pros and decrease the cons of drinking instead of saying 'don't drink,'" she said.

Although there is not comprehensive data that point to any trends, Daniere has theories about how the College's drinking culture operates.

"There's a small amount of students who drink a ton, and everyone thinks that's the norm," she said. On the contrary, Daniere points to more optimistic data gathered from the school's involvement with AlcoholEdu, an online test that was compulsory for incoming first-year students.

"One hundred out of 693 wanted alcohol-free events," said Daniere. Currently, her office is seeking funding for a CORE survey to be completed at the College next fall, which will hopefully give the clearest picture of Middlebury's drinking scene. For now, Daniere distributes pieces of advice for those students willing to listen.

"Take care of yourself, take care of each other," Daniere said.

The College's substance-free social house, Xenia House, is one place that Daniere may applaud, as the house and its members aim to increase the pros while decreasing the cons. Yes, get over it. Like many other college students, the members of Xenia House drink - they simply choose not to drink where they sleep.

"If I drink, I drink responsibly, and I don't drink just for the sake of having alcohol," said Michelle Personick '09, the President of Xenia House. "At Xenia we've discovered that you can get just as "drunk" from the sugar in a freshly brewed keg of root beer or a colorful mocktail drink as you can from alcohol."

Other students who have not complied with living in a substance-free setting see drinking responsibly, or rather, drinking irresponsibly, as primarily a marker of age and maturity.

"It's socially acceptable to drink until you black-out as a freshman, but that behavior in your junior year can make you a pariah," said William Carroll '07.5. For many students, the frequency of dangerous accident surrounding drinking have only occurred within the first years of college life.

"The ambulance came to Battell last year about 10 times," said Eliot Jia '10. "Usually it was someone who had never drank before and had 10 shots."

While one only needs to glance at the weekly Public Safety log to see that underage drinking is present at Middlebury, information about drug use on campus is a little harder to evaluate. In fact, according to data from Public Safety's annual campus security report, 51 drug law violations were referred for disciplinary action last year, compared to just 19 liquor violations.

The numbers may seem counterintuitive to the average student walking around Battell on a Friday night, where evidence of inebriated students can be found in every hallway. But Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah explained that the difference comes from the way that the violations are reported. Liquor violations are recorded only after a student receives three "alcohol citations" for underage drinking. Drug violations, on the other hand, are recorded whether it is the offender's first time or their fourth.

"What those numbers represent are violations of the law," said Boudah. "While [the students] aren't arrested because it's on campus, we do have to refer them to the Commons Deans for disciplinary action."

Boudah explained that Public Safety officers have some leeway in dealing with drug violations.

"We're not trained to be enforcing the law, so we report offenders differently than the police do it," she said. "For example, if there were five students who were all smoking marijuana but only one person is in possession at the time, we have to decide whether we report all five for disciplinary action or just the one who actually had the drugs."

In such an instance, the police would likely arrest all five students, while Public Safety officers may only report the student in possession, Boudah said.

What about the type of drugs? According to Boudah, it is all marijuana.

"We've heard rumors of other drugs but haven't seen any evidence," she said.

Boudah also admitted that the number of drug violations could probably be reduced by starting education programs that inform students of the effects of drug use, similar to E-chug and others already in place for repeat liquor law offenders. The education programs are mandatory for students who receive their third alcohol citation.

"I don't think that it's an enormous problem, but we do need to look at how to reduce the numbers through education and cooperation with the Commons Deans," she said.